This game is Party Golf but with racing: scoring looks and works exactly the same, the custom options offer a lot of familiar things, and they prioritize fast chaotic gameplay even when that feels wrong.
Comparison doesn't do this “sequel” many favors. Where Party Golf is something casual you could bring to a party and entertain friends for an evening, this game would annoy and frustrate all but the dedicated physics racing experts. Rather than hefty racecars or nimble go-karts, here the experience is more light RC car racing or a homemade soapbox derby.
My primary complaint is the default experience should have been better. Tracks are slightly too narrow and slippery, and getting used to the acceleration and handling of the cars takes a bit long for a party game where players might swap in and out.
As a racing game, there are many small issues. You can miss checkpoints by driving near the edge of the road, which means you miss an entire lap. Starting at a random checkpoint of any map makes learning tracks difficult. Sometimes the chase camera goes away from the track, while the fixed sky cam has a terrible angle for any maps with crossed roads or structures in the way.
For combat racing, the weapons and powers are a mostly negative mix. There's a vision blur that is painful to look at, an electric zapper which barely does anything, and a handful of guns and rockets that don't seem worth the effort of aiming them. Somehow they managed to make nitro sound and feel bad. You can drop mines and brick walls, but for some reason the tracks don't get cleaned between rounds so you'll be dodging your own previous wrecks and trap weapons.
I like the idea of the dynamite, where you have to bump another car and pass it to them before it explodes, though figuring that out took some time. The cowcatcher provides some fun as you try to flip other cars, even if you probably end up careening off the road right behind them. Shields are fine.
The biggest hazard is the course itself, from the instant-destruction of driving off the road to the death wall some distance behind the lead car that explodes anyone falling behind. Even on normal matches and default maps, a sign post or part of the terrain might block the road.
Gameplay is split into four categories: Elimination where you don't respawn, Race where you respawn and can fall behind, Time Trial which shows lap segment times, and Battle where you fight in a painfully small and simple arena without racing. A Quick Game starts one of these without options for match customization, or even the ability to choose a general mode or the track.
Choosing a Game Mode sets a few options to start with, but doesn't always explain what the game mode is about. “3 Laps” is pretty obvious, but what is “Speed Racer” or “Et Tu Brickus” ? Why does “Checkpoint Dash” have you hunting coins and why aren't the bonus points large enough to make them matter? And some modes are a bad fit for the type; “Don't Wipe Out” where you have to drift along a slippery track at high speed is interesting in the Race category, but too quick in Elimination.
Back on the positive side, they've got smart computer opponents to provide a challenge on most game modes, even with powers, which is an improvement over previously. Also, once you start messing with mutators and match customization, the races can start to get enjoyable. Just about every game mode can become playable or interesting with a few tweaks and fixes.
Mutators are the shallow options. They allow you to: restrict weapons, add a trailer to the back of the cars (basically an annoying weight), change wall types (my favorite is the teleport walls), adjust the track surface and obstacles (do spikes just not work?), add other ways of getting points, lock the accelerator or wheel, turn off collisions, restrict respawns, adjust health and game speed and more.
The deeper customization options include: changing the size and stats of cars, giving cars regeneration or more collision damage, moving or removing the death wall, determining effect pad ratios such as slippery zones or coin zones, adding a bunch of bonuses and penalties for things like respawning or getting kills or driving backwards, setting exact stats for AI opponents so they draft or cut corners, and even dropping objects behind the cars like mines or giant bananas or invisible ramps.
Specific weapons can be set to never appear and you can make all the roads grip nicely and you can slow down time which makes everything calmer … but there's no longer a way to save your custom modes. I had an idea for a race where the cars are all losing health over time and need to pick up repair kits to stay alive, and with a bit of effort I had that working. You can fully customize a race, but you'll have to do that whole deep setup every time.
Overall, the racing works if you accept the flaws but doesn't seem very deep, while the combat side is more miss than hit, and I can't recommend a game that needs work from me to start feeling okay. Freedom to get creative and customize a race exactly to your liking is neat, but not as a party game. The game and its modes should be fun by default.
